Romney Donor Frequently Threatens Critics

Normally I save something like this for the "link fests" but something about a billionaire using Scientology like tactics to silence critics through abuse of the law just really annoys me. It is also those times that the internet can be its most powerful.

A Salon article entitled "Billionaire Romney donor uses threats to silence critics" spells out some of the details. The article is about Mitt Romney supporter and billionaire Frank VanderSloot. He lives in Idaho and is CEO of Melaleuca, Inc. A company has a Better Business Bureau logo on its front page. There might be reasons for that logo being there. A 2004 Forbes article that described the company as "a pyramid selling organization, built along the lines of Herbalife and Amway." The company this individuals has run for years has to agree to "not engage in the marketing and promotion of an illegal pyramid and accused by the Food and Drug Administration of "deceiving consumers about some of its supplements." Draw your own conclusions about the company and its leadership from that.

Star Wars, Indiana Jones Filmumentaries

Below are the "Filmumentaries" of Jamie Benning. These videos act as a one stop video for what creation of four films - Star Wars: A New Hope, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark. They are compiled from interviews, behind the scenes material and other sources. The result is fascinating, wonderfully edited movie length videos that tell you everything about the creation of these wonderful films. They are long but worth watching if a fan. His Vimeo account with the videos is here. An interview about putting together Raiding the Lost Ark can be found here.

Raiding The Lost Ark: A Filmumentary

Linkfest - End of House, Kodak

Kodak Shuttering Camera Business
It is a true end of an era as Eastman Kodak Co have announced plans to focus on printers and to close its camera business. This is significant because Kodak not only invented the handheld camera, but is essentially synonymous with photography with its long history in photography going back to 1889. The movie business was built with the help of Kodak. It is hard to find a film that doesn't mentioned Kodak in the credits since for decades their cameras and film was used for creating movies and TV shows. The end came simply because Kodak just did not respond to the move to digital cameras and equipment fast enough, trying to force old style cameras on a population that had moved past them. By the time they made the transition, it was over as the competition had already started to dominate the market. Chances are the company is doomed as people just don't think "printers" when it comes to Kodak.

BitTorrent Piracy, No Effect on US Box Office
A new study from the University of Minnesota and Wellesley College has determined that there is no evidence that Bit Torrent hurts the box office (new movie releases at theaters) in the United States. It does have an impact on International box office but that is more due because of the often months delay between a premiere in the US vs. other territories. The MPAA assumes that every copy downloaded is a lost ticket sale but common sense should tell you that isn't the case. Chances are if someone is willing to download a movie with often crappy sound, jumping camera and other degraded quality, then they had no intention of ever going to see the movie. Chances are if not available to download, they just wouldn't see it. Now this is not a defense of piracy but just pointing out that the millions of dollars spent to fight it, the wiliness to override the first admen dent with acts like SOPA, are just wasted efforts that continued to be justified with bad math.

Linkfest - Super Bowl and D'Ohs

Time for another linkfest of random stuff I liked online. For once it is politics free. This edition brings you links to the Super Bowl commercials, a Back to the Future diorama, Oscar nominations, a case against eliminating the penny, Avengers extended commercial, Homer Simpson, and analysis of a classic comic book storyline.

Super Bowl Commercials
The Super Bowl may have ended wtih a New York Giants victory of 21-17 against the Patriots but the commercials will live on for months. If you want to know what you missed (or watch them again), hit the link above.

Lego Back to the Future II Diorama
Lego master Alex Jones (Orion Pax) has built a diorama of Hill Valley 2015 complete with the vehicles, clock tower, theatre and more. At the link is all the images and click here for the rest of his creations. If the name Orion Pax seems familiar that is the name of Transformers Optimus Prime before he became the leader of the Autobots. (via Brothers Brick)